Course Development Assistant

The Course Development Assistant will collaborate with Dr. Peter Zhang to build instructional materials for the graduate course "From Data to Action: Designing Human-Centered, Impact-Driven Decision Systems" (Fall 2025, Heinz College).

Key Responsibilities (8-12 hrs / week)

* Draft and polish LaTeX course notes, Beamer slide decks, and Jupyter notebooks.

* Assemble realistic datasets and code scaffolds for two flagship case studies (Senegal irrigation placement; Pittsburgh flu-surge staffing).

* Write homework assignments, project sprint templates, and grading rubrics that align with ABET/Heinz learning objectives.

* Curate up-to-date reading lists (bleeding-edge ML & optimization papers published 2023-2025) and integrate them into weekly teaching modules.

* Coordinate with the instructor and TAs to ensure accessibility, version-control rigor (Git/GitHub), and on-time delivery of materials.

* Maintain high production standards (clear visuals, ADA-compliant PDFs, reproducible code).

* Graduate student (master's, ABD, or PhD) or professional in Operations Research, Computer Science, Engineering, Data Science, or Public-Policy Analytics

* Demonstrated proficiency in Python, LaTeX, Git, optimization libraries (e.g., Gurobi, OR-Tools) and common ML frameworks.

* Prior experience creating instructional content or serving as a teaching assistant strongly preferred.

* Excellent written and verbal communication skills; proven ability to meet deadlines independently.